Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, June 25, 2013

BRIDGEPORT >> Judge Robert Brunetti of Goshen-the key witness in the Dominic Badaracco bribery trial -became more of a force for the prosecution Tuesday by his absence than when he testified a day earlier.

Brunetti spoke loudly and with anger in his voice on a wiretap recording orchestrated by investigators on Nov. 18, 2010, and heard by the jury Tuesday. Referring to Badaracco on the tape, Brunetti told his boyhood friend Ronald "Rocky" Richter: "He offered me money, can't f--ing do that ... He's f--in' calling me and he's offering me f--in' money."

Prosecutors were so happy they rested their case after calling only four witnesses.

The defense will call its first witness Wednesday. Trial judge Robert Devlin said the case could go to the jury Friday. Badaracco told the judge he will not testify.

Brunetti had taken a beating on Monday from defense attorney Richard Meehan who got the judge to admit he made mistakes in sworn statements and violated his oath of office by sharing grand jury information with Richter.

The grand jury was looking into the homicide of Badaracco's ex-wife Mary, who disappeared from the family home in Sherman in 1984. Although no body was ever found, state police, the state's attorney and Gov. William O'Neill reclassified the Sherman case as a homicide in 1990. Badaracco is the prime suspect.

Jurors read from a transcript as they heard Richter tell Brunetti, "No, no don't ...don't take it."

"Well, I'm not," Brunetti responded.

Richter did not know the conversation was recorded by investigators from the chief state's attorney's office.

The day before the call, Brunetti testified, Badaracco offered him $100,000 to influence the grand jury probe. The judge quoted Badaracco as saying: "I'm only gonna say this one time-it's worth a hundred G's." That conversation was not recorded.

Around that time, Richter testified, "He [Badaracco] said he thought he might get arrested."

Richter had already called Brunetti twice to get grand jury information and he testified Badaracco wanted him to call again.

"He wanted me to do that last week," Richter said on the recording. "He wanted me to do it. He said, 'I gotta give Brunes [a friendly nickname for the judge] something.' So, I, uh, told him I wouldn't call you ... He wanted to call you say, 'Hey, I gotta call ya for somethin.' I know that, what's up. Hey, hey, they might have him on tape ... they might have my cell phone tapped, they, you never know ... I don't know. I don't give a sh--. I don't know, I don't know nothing about it, and I don't care."